Nebraska residents who have been charged with crimes and who are not satisfied with the outcomes of their first trials or court proceedings may wish to pursue appeals. An appeal essentially gives a defendant another chance to receive a different outcome to his or her case. Understanding a bit about how appeals work is important for anyone wishing to seek a new judicial opinion.
According to the Nebraska Supreme Court, there are generally two courts that hear appeals with the State Supreme Court being one of those. The Nebraska Court of Appeals is the second court to which an appeal case may be funnelled. That said, there are some situations in which an appeal must first go to a district court before proceeding to an actual appellate court.
If a case must be heard by a district court first, it is important for defendants to know that there are definitive timeframes in which a request for an appeal must be submitted. As explained by the Nebraska Legislature, a defendant has 30 days after an original decision to file a request for an appeal to a district court. An example of when such a case must go to a district court is when a misdemeanor case was originally pursued in a county court.
Once a district court has received the request for an appeal, the clerk of that district court then must file notice with the State Supreme Court. That notice must be completed within 30 days of the date that the district court received the original request on.